My answer to the Burning Island puzzle

The puzzle is as follows:

A man is stranded on an island covered in forest.

One day, when the wind is blowing from the west, lightning strikes the west end of the island and sets fire to the forest. The fire is very violent, burning everything in its path, and without intervention the fire will burn the whole island, killing the man in the process.

There are cliffs around the island, so he cannot jump off.

How can the man survive the fire? (There are no buckets or any other means to put out the fire)

The answer they gave is that he set another fire to survive, but dies anyway due to starvation. I have a more practical solution.Because the island is in the middle ocean (Where else would it be?) there will normally be a heavy amount of rain. The rain provides the intervention by dousing the areas that haven't caught fire yet while not putting out the fire. The fire gradually dies down due to the lack of dry materials and constant dousing by rain and goes out due to lack of fuel. The man survives the fire, builds a raft and returns to civilization.

And that is my answer. (I'm trying to be optimistic.He died in the original answer.)

When ever I see a brand new new math problem, I want to solve it. Then I want to burn it. Then I want to rebuild it in a new, more streamlined way.